Community Highlights: Meet Kim Turcotte of HB Mermaids

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Turcotte.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My love and fascination with Mermaids began when I was five years old! I was born in Tampa, Florida and my family was in the Fishing Industry, we were always around the water. I had a strong love for the ocean, a beach baby! So my mom could not wait to take me to Weeki Wachee a Theme Park where the Mermaids swam for my birthday! This is where I saw my very first mermaid! She had a bright red tail, dark long flowing hair and was blowing bubbles from an air hose! I was mesmerized! This was way before Ariel appeared! This was the Mermaid I identified with as a child! I wanted to be a mermaid too from that moment forward, and at five I truly believed from that moment on I was a mermaid! I swam with my feet together and loved being underwater as long as I possibly could! In my young mind of five years old, I truly believed I was a mermaid. Some memories you never forget growing up and never want to give up.

So as I grew up to my adulthood I never disbelieved in mermaids because deep inside I was a mermaid at heart with human legs and forever dreamed of swimming in a tail. I guess I just figured one day that dream would come and my tail would magically appear. I never gave up and then some 30-plus years later say S-hello to Mermaid Flower and HB Mermaids!

Fun Fact: Weeki Wachee use to be like our Disney World before Disney World existed! Weeki Wachee was one of the first 6 Florida Theme Park Attractions before Disney World! This was like a trip to Disney World in comparison for me at the time and one of the most vivid memories I have as a child and never forgotten! I saw my first mermaid in 1965! I just gave my mermaid age away!

Now let’s talk about how Mermaid Flower SEA-E-O, HB MERMAIDS swam to Huntington Beach, California! As all Mermaids do they eventually grow up, maybe get married, maybe have children and continue to dream! I grew up and was blessed to be a mother of four! My kids loved the beach, swimming, surfing and Ice Hockey! I was a floral designer, had my own floral business at home while raising my children. My husband is a well-known youth hockey coach with the Jr. Kings Ice Hockey Program and we even owned an ice rink in Westminister Ice Palace some time ago. Back in 2003-04, I started a little Mermaid business on the side called “I love Mermaids” hoping to start a little mermaid store and home party business but it never took off. I had a couple of mermaid tails that were not swimmable and looked for hours trying to find a swimming tail I could afford for my business but with four kids playing ice hockey a silicone mermaid tail was not an option we could afford! So owning a realistic mermaid tail would have to stay a dream, and since I was terrible at sewing I never tried to even design a swimmable tail. Then one day low and behold after searching the internet endlessly I find a Mermaid Community! Yup, there is a Mermaid Community y’all and I saw a link to a company called Fin Fun that just launched. I clicked on the link to the website and I found a tail I could finally afford! Weeki Wachee mermaids were wearing these tails too so I knew they had to be MerMazing!

Then I braved up and tried making my own! I even self-taught myself how to make a Realistic Silicone Mermaid Tail to save myself sand dollars so I made a few! Say S-hello to Mermaid Flower! I found my Fins and swam out of my ClamShell! My Children and Husband were a bit confused as to what was happening! However when my mom, brothers, and sisters saw my mermaid life taking over they were all so happy and proud of me telling me you finally grew your tail! You have always been a mermaid! Soon I was doing mermaid appearances with other mermaids and then the day came! MY FIRST MERMAID BIRTHDAY PARTY!

My first Mermaid Birthday Party request was at Waterworks Aquatics in Huntington Beach in 2015! We were supposed to have 15 children and with three Mermaids Hired 25 plus showed up! They heard there would be mermaids! I already had a birthday party plan in place and wanted the kids to get a chance to experience trying on kid-size mermaid tails we purchased. Some children came with their own tails they bought online. I had organized games with a 1-5 ratio ready-to-go poolside setup. 1 Mermaid per group of 5 children was our plan in place and we would rotate and make this a Fintastic S-hell-a-bration to remember! Well needless to say we had our work cut out for us with way more children than we were told attending! Thank goodness I took notes from our family ice hockey school of 45 years Turcotte Hockey and had a Mermaid Plan in place before the party! Mermaid Planning and D-Tails are key to successful party planning! My Floral Wedding and Event Planning also came in handy!

Waterworks owner was also impressed as he heard about the mermaids appearing at one of his pools and from that year on till today we are still preferred and referred Mermaid Company for Birthday Parties at Waterworks Aquatic’s which is an honor when requested! We learned a lot from this one party and WATERSAFETY AND TAILS was a huge issue I knew I had to focus on! Swimming in a Mermaid Tail and working with children who wanted to learn to swim in a Mermaid Tail was a new business model hitting the industry! Finding mermaids who would want to do birthday parties was easy! Finding mermaids to teach children how to swim in a mermaid’s tail was a whole new world!

I was receiving so many calls to do mermaid parties requesting if I could teach children (AND ADULTS) how to swim in a mermaid tail so I dove in and took the parties! Parents were buying tails online like crazy!

We would show up to parties for a mermaid request to swim and perform and kids would be swimming around in tails purchased which would get out of control and to be honest dangerous for our performers as well! There are some horrible products on the market and I was worried that someone could potentially drown if we don’t get the word out to parents. Then I had the idea to start my own Mermaid Program and I would offer something similar to my husband’s Ice Hockey School but in the water!

A new Water Sport called Mermaiding! So I reached out to local resorts I have worked with over the years in the wedding event industry (COUPLE OF THEM THOUGHT I WAS OUT OF MY MIND) and then I met with the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa and met the Director of Fun January Jimenez who loved my presentation and could see what I saw in putting this program together!

We started in the Summer of 2016! We had 1-5 Ration offering Mermaid Magic to 20 Registered Guest Children ages 6-15 to sign up! We had waiting lines at 8AM on Sunday Mornings of guests wanting to sign up their son or daughter to learn to swim in a mermaid tail and swim with mermaids! It was a full production! I would take my mermaids to the pool on a flat cart and they would magically appear waiting in formation for guests to arrive, while I would go meet parents and children after a little mermaid hula on land and getting their tails to walk to the pool and be introduced to the mermaids. We would do a swim test to ensure all our children were ready and then I would separate the children to their Mermaid Station and the rotation would begin! We always ended with a Song and Thank you for visiting our beautiful resort and made sure all our students and parents swam away with tail knowledge and Fin Safety! Guest said we were the Super Bowl of a Mermaid Schools! We have had many parents over the years try on an adult tail and swim with their little mermaids! Our Dads are the best! We love our MerMen!

The industry is growing so much since I started my program and we now see more boys sign up for my Mermaid Program! PADI, SSI and Naui also offer a Mermaid Certification course for Open Water! The industry has grown and we are growing with it! I recently partnered with one of the top swimsuit manufacturers in the US and The Mermaid Store based out of Laguna Beach to develop our own eco-friendly line of children and adult mermaid tails! Say S-hello to SURFARI SWIM born right here in Huntington Beach, California SURF CITY USA!

I always wanted to design my own line of surfing and swim apparel and now that vision is becoming a reality! SURFARI SWIM is coming to life! After teaching at least a 100’s of children to swim in mermaid tails over the many years I finally have the opportunity to design a tail for my resorts, clients and guests can swim in! So be sure to get on our Mailing List! Follow us on Finstagram, Fishbook, YouTube and TikTok! Mermaids and Surfers Unite here!

Over the years HB Mermaids has grown tremendously! We even made it back through the Pandemic which was really tough! I never gave up and now here we are getting ready for Summer 2022 and we are at Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach, California available five days a week! We are still at 1-5 Ratio for Fin-Instructor but we no longer teach swimming in a mermaid tail. We teach in our Mermaid Legging’s for Swim Safety and we do use a Mono Fin to Demonstrate as needed. We will swim in tails when we know our students are 100 Percent able to swim with us safely usually near the end of our swim session! We learned a lot over the years and as a RedCross Swim and Safety Instructors, we are teaching how to be safe in and around the water after all. My goal is to make sure that every family that books with us leave with my Mermaid Message and their children can share our Fin Safety Messages with their friends as well.

Our Aquatic Centers are all booking their Mermaid Camp Summer Sessions again! We are finally once again back at WaterSafe Swim and Splash in the City of La Mirada! We are also so excited to have added more locations including the Prestigious Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, and the beautiful City of Laguna Niguel Aquatic Center LNAC!
We have been featured on KTLA, FOX NEWS, LOCAL TV APPEARANCES, TV Shows and just finished a surprise TV Pilot that will be airing soon! It has been a whirlwind and as we continue to grow we continue to educate ourselves and in 2023 we will be introducing our very own SURFARI SWIM MERMAID SWIM CERTIFICATION COURSES and RETREATS partnering with our Swim Schools and Resorts!

Book a Mermaid Party for your Shell-a-bration! Special Event, Movie Premier we swim to you! Our Mermaids and Mermen are MerMazing!

Want our Mermaid Program at your Resort or Aquatic Center! Our team is ready to travel and train your sight on location!

Book our Tail and Training Resort/ Aquatic Program! We can have you up and running as fast as you can say SWIM! Our training program runs from mid September-April 1st!

HB Mermaids also supports Ocean Friendly Foundations including our local Surfrider Foundation! We attend many beach clean-ups and throughout the year and visit schools, and participate in city events educating children and adults on the importance of recycling efforts and how you can be a difference. There is no Planet B! We also support the Dolphin Project, Sea Shepherd and Pacific Marine Mammal Care and Rescue Center in Laguna Beach and the IF Homeless Foundation. Also, don’t forget Mermaids and Mermen come in all different shapes sizes, ages, races and sexual preferences. We are a happy loving community and a Voice for the Ocean and the Community we reside in. We have a huge plastic problem in our ocean and we want to keep our Happy Ocean Animals Happy.

Lastly, you don’t need a mermaid tail to be a mermaid. You can be a land-locked mermaid however if you do want to swim in a tail I suggest taking swim lessons first! I lived over half my life without a tail and have always been and will forever be a Mermaid. You need to have a good heart and care about the planet we live in and be respectful of others! Find your Mersona and be your best mermaid or merman true self! You can be a mermaid at any age, I am living proof! Here is to Summer 2022!

HB Love Mermaid Flower

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh Fishsticks Mermaids’ struggles are real!

Working in the mermaid industry has had its struggles. My business is also a Princess and Mermaid Party Entertainment Company. Trying to find a Merfect Match to hire and represent your company is not as easy as it looks! You can’t just swim you have to be able to perform and swim sometimes for 2-3 Hours in a Realistic Mermaid Tail that is not easy to just take off and put back on! When performing with children if they see a zipper you are suddenly not considered A REAL MERMAID so you have to be prepared and be ready for an ocean of questions regarding being a real mermaid! I apparently do it so well that I don’t need a tail! I get asked all the time when is my tail going to appear or can I put my tail back on and swim! Children know I have walking legs and human swim tails to swim in and my Surfer keeps my REAL Mermaid Magical Tail safely guarded waiting for me to come back to the ocean just before Sunset!

Okay, seriously STRUGGLES!
2020 was a Struggle! No Pools. Resorts Closed. Husband not able to Coach Hockey! March 2019 was a game-changer! We were at Harrah’s SoCal in Funner, California doing a huge launch for Mermaids at Harrah’s for posters and billboards and the hotel became almost empty before our eyes! The Corona Virus took over the World! My daughter was on Spring Break in Florida and my Mermaid and I were watching the news and pretty sure we were seeing a scene from a movie unfold before our eyes! Our business shut down that week and I had just put a deposit on a new mermaid performing 1000 galloon swimming tank and had tails purchased for Spring/ Summer camps and classes! I was in a fish hole and then everyone that worked for me filed for unemployment. I was like this dream is over! I did not know how we would ever survive much less keep our home! It was really scary! I got creative and went on Social Media offering Birthday Party wishes and Story Time on Instagram Live! Set up the front of our home with a baby pool and put our tails and Mermaid Best on so parent’s from our Mom Groups could Drive-by say S-Hello. We would have our Mask On outside our home just in case a family got out of their car, we could be as safe as possible! I did this to help our moms get a break and the kids to have hope and something to look forward to. I never gave up! I was raised that way, you never give up! Things will come back and get better and we all needed to believe this and work together!

As the pools began to slowly open back up past 25% occupancy, and within a short time the pool was fully open! Hyatt reached out and asked if I was ready to offer Mermaid Magic again and how that would look. I was the only guest activity for the kids. I had all my vaccinations and felt confident in teaching. I also wanted children to have something to look forward to! So you can just imagine how this went down in the beginning as I was the first person many of our guests have ever spent any outside time with for over a year! I am not going to lie I prayed many times that I would not get Covid that myself and my guest were safe. I was outdoors in a Pool and had made a seashell Mermaid FaceShield/ Crown. I could not go underwater in a Face Mask for obvious reasons and silly me trying it was not pretty and honestly dangerous!

Spring 2021 I started back to work 1 on 1 with families! I had 3 hours to teach three families. They could book any day during the week on the Cabana App at check-in! I was so happy to be back working but it was really awkward because my kids could not take a class in a group. We had to be as safe as possible for many reasons. We have children that fly to the Hyatt to stay at our resort to see their Allergy Specialist and our Resort also has a Chef that specializes in Meals that children with immune disorders and severe allergies and they have to stick to their diet! So we made sure these special visits were safe and fun! We kept a SAFE TAIL DISTANCE APART (:

Working with children and adults you need to constantly have an ever-changing lesson plan! Fin Fun Mermaid Tails reached out to me about a young lady her name is Molly Burke and she was told she could not take a Mermaid Class because she is Blind! Okay, Molly is a YouTube celebrity and Spokeswomen for the Blind. I didn’t know who she was until a couple of days before I gave her a Mermaid Class. I watched some videos of her swimming and it was very apparent she could swim she just needed someone to help show her physically and with the use of sound and the right props we nailed it! Check out Molly Burke on YouTube! She is forever Mermaid Sparkles to me! Molly is sensitive to the bright sunlight outside so making sure she had the right pair of goggles was one of the first things I wanted her to have! She taught me a lot and still does till this day! Don’t judge a person by their disability of what they Can’t Do not knowing what they CAN DO!

We’ve been impressed with HB MERMAIDS, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
HB MERMAIDS is a Professional Mermaid Entertainment Company specializing in Mermaid Entertainment for all ages! We specialize in Children’s Entertainment! Birthday Party, Meet Greet, Festivals, Film, TV, Print, Grand Openings, Team Bonding, Pool Parties, Swimming Mermaids, Corporate, Private Events we have a Mermaid or Merman to help make your Mermaid Event Mer Magical! We also have Mermaids that are Professional Singers, SchoolTeachers, Divers, Free Divers, Certified Mermaids via Padi and SSI, Red Cross Lifeguards, CPR Certified, Red Cross Swim Instructors and even a Music Professor and Voice Over Actress and boy can they sing ~ We are a little bit of everything! We are Fully Insured and Carry a separate Swim School Insurance Policy for our Mermaid Learn to Swim School Program. All our mermaids have current Background Checks due to the nature of teaching and working with children.

We are the largest, safest operating Mermaid Learn to Swim Program in Southern California working with several Local and City Pools and two Major Resorts in Orange County. We have a huge referral and repeat list of customers and resort guests over the past seven years which is rewarding in itself! We have worked hard to get to where we are today known and recognized as one of the Top Mermaid Entertainment Companies in Southern California! We might not have as many followers or a fancy website as we would rather focus on what is more important “Our Clients!” We don’t pay for Followers! We are organically grown! HB Mermaids is a company built on creating dreams of opportunity! If you can think of it we can create it! I am also extremely proud of our Mermaid Learn to Swim Program which continues to grow and extremely proud of our Mermaids and Mermen for doing all they can do to make us Shine like a SeaStar! We are not just a business we are a FAMILY!

HB MERMAIDS is super EXTREMELY excited to O-Fish-ially launch our very own Mermaid Ocean Friendly Inspired Line for Surf, Swim, Dive, Yoga Apparel SURFARI SWIM and SURFARI SWIM KIDS made for All Ages born in Surf City USA, Huntington Beach, California! Our SURFARI SWIM partners are ready to SWIM into Summer 2022! Get ready to catch our Big Wave Launch with SURFARI SWIM in SURF CITY USA! Our company started with a dream where Mermaids and Surfers Unite and together we can SAVE THE OCEAN and together we can help make our beaches and ocean a safe playground for all to swim in especially all the Happy Ocean Animals! We support many foundations and participate in Beach Clean Ups! We are proud to participate with our Local City Events supporting small businesses and our community! We have a Mermaid Van painted by the Popular Local Artist Melissa Murals reminding everyone of the importance of keeping our Ocean Animals Happy ~ We support Surfrider Local Chapter in Huntington Beach and Seal Beach Chapters. We also want to bring attention to the Pacific Marine Mammal Care and Rescue Center in Laguna Beach! We support Learn to Swim Programs and Aquatic Centers and the importance of learning to swim!

If you want to SWIM in a Mermaid Tail you need to know how to SWIM!

I guess one of the most important things I can think of that sets us apart from others in business respect is that our company is a Professional Mermaid Company and BUSINESS! We are not a Teenager you hired next door you bought a tail for to swim in and look pretty. We are a REAL business with a Business License to Operate and we are fully insured to do exactly what we do! We strive ourself to be Safe in and around the water and work hard to be a respected leader in the Mermaid Industry.

Contact Info:

• Email: hbmermaids@gmail.com
• Website: www.hbmermaids.com
• Instagram: HB Mermaids
• Facebook: hbmermaids@mermaidsofthepacific
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoa9o8XHOHRdQTYo6wtak5g
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/hb-mermaids-huntington-beach-2

Image Credits:
Del Mar Digital HB Mermaids